Merry Christmas to our readers! Wherever you are reading this blog post from today, we hope you are filled with good cheer and the merriment that only the holiday season can bring. Take some time to enjoy the following beautiful literary Christmas quotes (and if you're looking for more, check out our post on this subject from last year). These we've taken from our favorite books and poems as well as from other holiday-based writings. We hope they warm your heart and bring a smile to your face as you enjoy Christmas day.
1. "Christmas! 'Tis the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart." —Washington Irving
2. "I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!" —Christmas Bells, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
3. "We saw Uncle Jack every Christmas, and every Christmas he yelled across the street for Miss Maudie to come marry him. Miss Maudie would yell back, "Call a little louder, Jack Finch, and they'll hear you the post office, I haven't heard you yet!" Jem and I thought this a strange way to ask for a lady's hand in marriage, but then again Uncle Jack was rather strange.”—To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee
4. At Christmas every body invites their friends about them, and people think little of even the worst weather. I was snowed up at a friend’s house once for a week. Nothing could be pleasanter.“ —Emma, Jane Austen
5. Harry: “Will you look at this? I’ve got some presents!”
Ron: “What did you expect, turnips?” —Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, J.K. Rowling
6. The Savior must have been
A docile Gentleman—
To come so far so cold a Day
For little Fellowmen—
The Road to Bethlehem
Since He and I were Boys
Was leveled, but for that ‘twould be
A rugged Billion Miles—
—The Savior Must Have been a Docile Gentleman, Emily Dickinson
7. “…do you remember two kinds of Christmases? There is one kind in a house where there is little and a present represents not only love but sacrifice. The one single package is opened with a kind of slow wonder, almost reverence. Once I gave my youngest boy, who loves all living things, a dwarf, peach-faced parrot for Christmas. He removed the paper and then retreated a little shyly and looked at the little bird for a long time. And finally he said in a whisper, "Now who would have ever thought that I would have a peach-faced parrot?"
Then there is the other kind of Christmas with present piled high, the gifts of guilty parents as bribes because they have nothing else to give. The wrappings are ripped off and the presents thrown down and at the end the child says—"Is that all?" Well, it seems to me that America now is like that second kind of Christmas. Having too many THINGS they spend their hours and money on the couch searching for a soul. A strange species we are…” —A letter to Adalai Stevenson from John Steinbeck
8. “I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way (s)he handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.” —Maya Angelou, source
9. Pray, dear madam, another glass; it is Christmas time, it will do you no harm. —The Kickleburrys on the Rhine, William Makepeace Thackeray
10. Then he shook! What he saw was a shocking surprise! Every Who down in Whoville, the tall and the small, Was singing! Without any presents at all! He HADN'T stopped Christmas from coming! IT CAME! Somehow or other, it came just the same! —How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Dr. Seuss
